Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead

Also known as:
The Ramparts
Nearest town:
Amesbury (1km E)
OS reference:
SU145417
OS sheet:
184
Latitude:
51° 10' 25.72 N
Longitude:
1° 47' 33.22 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead (Hillfort) by juamei

Open Source Environment agency LIDAR

Image credit: © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2015.
juamei
juamei Jan 20, 2016
Image of Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead (Hillfort) by Chance

One of the beech trees planted in 1735 after the hillfort was incorporated into Amesbury Park.

Image credit: Chance - Aug 2011
Chance
Chance Apr 9, 2012
Image of Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead (Hillfort) by Chance

Vespasian’s Camp as seen from the Stonehenge Road

Image credit: Chance - Aug 2011
Chance
Chance Apr 9, 2012
Image of Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead (Hillfort) by Chance

Vespasian’s Camp as seen from the A303

Image credit: Chance - Aug 2011
Chance
Chance Apr 9, 2012
Image of Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead (Hillfort) by Chance

The southern section of Vespasian’s Camp which is cut through by the Stonehenge Road.

Image credit: Chance - Aug 2011
Chance
Chance Apr 9, 2012
Image of Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead (Hillfort) by tjj

Auroch bones

Exhibits at the Mellor Hall Exhibition – Easter 2012

Image credit: tjj
tjj
tjj Apr 8, 2012
Image of Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead (Hillfort) by Chance

In the 18th century the hillfort became part of the landscaped gardens of the Marquess of Queensberry’s house at Amesbury Abbey, later known as the Antrobus Estate. This new phase included landscaping with tree planting, ornamental walks, vistas and a grotto.
Today, trees and shrubs cover Vespasian’s Camp. This legacy from the garden phase of its history is now a listed Grade II park and garden.

Image credit: Sir Richard Colt-Hoare, 1810, Ancient Wiltshire, Vol.1
Chance
Chance Aug 13, 2008

Articles

Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead

Ancient platform 'damaged' during Stonehenge tunnel work

moss
moss Dec 7, 2018

Archaeologists have accused Highways England of accidentally drilling a large hole through a 6,000-year-old structure near Stonehenge during preparatory work for a tunnel.

The drilling, which is alleged to have taken place at Blick Mead, around a mile and a half from the world-famous neolithic ring of stones, has enraged archaeologists, who say engineers have dug a three-metre-deep hole (10ft) through a man-made platform of flint and animal bone.

Highways England have said they are not aware of any damage to archaeological layers on the site caused by their work and will meet with the archaeological team on Thursday, led by David Jacques, a senior research fellow at the University of Buckingham.......

theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/dec/06/ancient-platform-damaged-during-stonehenge-tunnel-work

Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead

Mesolithic dog on long walk from Yorkshire?

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Oct 7, 2016

theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/07/archaelogists-evidence-earliest-known-journey-uk-history-stonehenge-wilsthire-mesolithic-man-dog

David Jacques and his team have found a dog’s tooth at Blick Mead. It dates from 7000 years ago. So people had dogs at the site all that time ago, it’s a nice thought. But more interestingly, they found that the isotopes in its enamel match those in the water in the Vale of York. Suggesting that dog and owner had walked all that way.

Which, one might suggest, wouldn’t be unreasonable if you were a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer roaming around Britain? And maybe that if you were in Wiltshire that year you might pop in. But Jacques suggests Yorkshire’s too far away for that and they must have deliberately been drawn in from a long way away, as were others, especially for whatever exciting and famous stuff was going on at Amesbury at that time.

The article also includes a nice bit of anti-tunnel sentiment.

Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead

Groundbreaking finds by Stonehenge team

moss
moss Nov 1, 2014

Update for 2014.

Pre-history may have to be re-written following a recent dig by university students near Stonehenge.

Signs of human habitation 8,000 years ago have been discovered by Archaeology MA students from the University of Buckingham, led by senior research fellow David Jacques.
Mr Jacques said: “This year we’ve found burnt flint – a sign that people had made fires, so were in the area, around 8,000 years ago.

“The finds will have to be carbon-dated to get a precise date.

“It’s been wonderful that the first ever University of Buckingham archaeology students have unearthed mesolithic tools as part of the team of volunteers at the dig.”

The archaeologist, who is leading the new Archaeology MA course at the university, has just completed a two-week dig at Vespasian’s Camp, a mile from Stonehenge, at which MA students and University of Buckingham staff worked as volunteers, sifting through remains.

A number of ancient flint tools were among the finds.

More than 12,000 items from the mesolithic era (8000 – 3500BC) have been uncovered, including hunting tools, the cooked bones of aurochs – a gigantic cow-like animal – deer, wild boar, and even toads’ legs.

The finds have revealed that the site was in use continually for over 3,000 years, and could even be the reason why Stonehenge is where it is.

Mr Jacques suspects the site will contain evidence of settlements, which would be some of the earliest ever found in the UK and would completely change our understanding of this era.

Mr Jacques appeared on TV this year in BBC 1’s Operation Stonehenge and BBC 4’s The Flying Archaeologist.

And the MA students working alongside him at the dig a fortnight ago found themselves being filmed for a forthcoming episode of Horizon.

Digs at the site over the last few years have already yielded a staggering 32,000 artefacts dating from as far back as 7500BC.

Last year, the dig resulted in 8,000-year-old burnt frogs’ legs being found, revealing the delicacy was originally English and not French.

Earlier this year, carbon dating of finds from the dig led to the revelation that Amesbury is the oldest town in the country.

A previous public lecture by Mr Jacques at the university drew a packed audience.

Following the latest dig, Mr Jacques is returning to deliver another public lecture on Thursday, November 13.

The free event will take place at 6.30pm, in the Chandos Road Building, as part of the university’s autumn concert and lecture series.

In the lecture, Mr Jacques will unveil startling new evidence showing how the mesolithic period influenced the building of Stonehenge.

The lecture will focus on the area around the dig, Blick Mead, which features a natural spring, which would have attracted settlers to the area.

The warm spring water has caused stones to turn a bright puce, a colour of stone not found elsewhere in the UK.

David Jacques was elected a Fellow of the Society of the Antiquaries (FSA) in recognition of the importance of his discoveries there.

buckinghamtoday.co.uk/news/more-news/groundbreaking-finds-by-stonehenge-team-1-6390477

Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead

Archaeology project in Amesbury

moss
moss Jan 4, 2009

WHILE internationally-sponsored archaeological work at Stonehenge and Durrington Walls has seized the public interest, Amesbury’s very own project has unobtrusively continued just a short distance away.

For the last three years, a small and dedicated Open University-led team of professionals, undergraduate students and local residents has been evaluating a small natural basin surrounding a spring on the western edge of the town near the Iron Age fort known as Vespasian’s Camp.

The site has been given the informal title of Blick Mead after the field name found on nineteenth century estate and tithe maps.

Their work, on private land on the margin of Abbey Parkland, has revealed a human presence from as early as the Neolithic period, through the Middle Ages to the present day.

The site occupies an area about the size of two tennis courts, and overlooks the River Avon to the south. Its proximity to the ancient Harroway trackway and the Stonehenge Avenue suggests it was close to the centre of key transport links and human movement to the area.

Peter Goodhugh from The Amesbury Society, said: “Vespasian’s Camp was probably outlined in bright white chalk in prehistory, and would have been visible for miles around, thus linking it with major barrow groups across Salisbury Plain.

“It is increasingly clear the fort would have been a most prominent marker until it was landscaped in the second half of the 18th century, when many of its ancient stories were also ‘covered over’.

“In the Saxon period, and perhaps for many centuries before, Amesbury and its environs were part of the royal estates.” Finds at this parkland site have included prehistoric flint artefacts, an Iron Age boundary formed by hedging or fencing, Roman glass, and horse bones.

A track paved with flint cobbles leading down to the water was uncovered, and a small part of the level margin of the spring-carved basin is packed with small chalk cobbles. With the spring in use for at least four thousand years, the area must have been quite a thoroughfare, and was, perhaps, a place of ritual in the Neolithic and Bronze ages, connected to the wider Stonehenge landscape.

In Roman and later periods, it may have witnessed settlement or industry.

“Many aspects of the site remain a fascinating puzzle, and only further investigation will allow the fullest possible story to be revealed,” said Mr Goodhugh.

While digs with international acclaim can command significant funding, this one has to rely on £500 a time, to allow long-weekend evaluations, with people making voluntary contributions to keep the work going.

Wider information on the project can be found on the Open University website at www.open.ac.uk/Arts/classtud/amesbury/index.

Project leader, David Jacques, will be giving a talk on the background to and progress of The Amesbury Project at the Methodist Church Hall, High Street, Amesbury, on January 23 from 7.30pm. Admission is £2.

by Morwenna Blake.. This is Wiltshire

tinyurl.com/84s5ap

Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead

tjj
tjj Apr 8, 2012

Not possible to visit this site as I was told it is on “very private property.”

Today (yesterday now) I made the long bus journey to Amesbury – really worth the effort. The small exhibition in what appears to be an old scout hut grandly called Mellor Hall really captured my imagination. Lots of exhibits of flint arrow heads and auroch bones which have been found at Vespasian’s Camp, also at the nearby site of a spring known as Blick Mead. Vespasian’s Camp is located 1.5km between Stonehenge and Durrington Walls. It overlooks the Avenue and Bluestonehenge on its western side and the river Avon to the south and east.

Excavations on what was thought to be an Iron Age hillfort reveal the site is much older than previously thought. The finds date back to the Mesolithic period making it 8000 years old; 10,000 pieces of flint and bone have been found. It had previously been dismissed by archaeologists as is in the grounds of Amesbury Abbey which were subject to extensive landscaping in the 18th century. However, David Jacques, Open University students and volunteers undertook small scale field work between 2005-2011.

Blick Mead is a small open basin next to Amesbury Park and immediately south of the southern carriage way of the A303. There is a shallow water course running from it which is currently dry and an artificial drain which would take the water down to the river Avon in wetter conditions. Geologist, Peter Hoare, gave a short, very interesting talk about spring sapping and the effect of water tables rising and falling. He also reported that some dumping of materials had taken place during the building of the A303 which accounted for a layer of clay and flint below the chalk bed rock.

Miscellaneous

Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead
Hillfort
Chance
Chance Sep 21, 2012

Details of site on Pastscape

A univallate hillfort of probable Iron Age date, enclosing an area of circa 15 hectares situated on the southern end of a narrow spur within a meander of the River Avon. The hillfort has an entrance to the north and another probable entrance in the south. Road widening in 1964 showed the rampart to have two phases of construction, with pottery recovered from both phases (the first phase was associated with sherds described as Iron Age “A/B”, the second with Iron Age “C”). The rampart survives to a maximum height of 2 metres on the west, north and south-east sides. Elsewhere it is present as a scarp with no surmounting bank. Part of the eastern rampart has been modified by 18th century landscaping, and a grotto (SU 14 SW 217) is incorporated within it. The interior was also landscaped during the 18th century when the hillfort was incorporated within the park of Amesbury House (SU 14 SW 261). The southernmost part of the hillfort is separated from the remainder by Stonehenge Road and has been built on.

Miscellaneous

Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead
Hillfort
Chance
Chance Jun 10, 2010

The camp at Amesbury called Vespasian’s Camp

The camp near Amesbury, between Stonehenge and the town, upon elevated ground, was, according to Stukeley, commonly called Vespasian’s, and he endorses the name. It is locally known as “the ramparts”. Sir R. Hoare considers that this was originally the stronghold of those numerous Britons who inhabited the plains around Stonehenge, an asylum in times of danger, for their wives, children, and cattle; and that like other camps of the same kind, it was occupied, as occasion or necessity required, by Romans, Saxons, and Danes.
“It occupies the apex of a hill, surrounded on two sides, east and south, by the river Avon, and comprehends within its area 39 acres. It extends in length from south to north, and terminates in a narrow rounded angle at the latter point. It was surrounded by a single vallum, which has been much mutilated on the east side in forming the pleasure grounds of Amesbury Park. The ramparts on the western side towards Stonehenge, are very bold and perfect. It appears to have had two entrances, north and south ; the former still remains perfect and undoubted. The area is planted and fancifully disposed in avenues, walks, &c., near the principal one of which, and on the highest ground, is the appearance of a barrow, but much disfigured in its form.’’ The camp is divided by the high road which passes Stonehenge. In Stukeley’s Common-Place Book, is the following mention of it: ‘’The walls, Vespasian’s camp, as believ’d. The people of Amesbury say the area of it is 40 acres, single trench, one graff towards Stonehenge.” In his ” Stonehenge described,” he describes the camp as “an oblong square, nicely placed upon a flexure of the river, which closes one side and one end of it. There is an old barrow inclos’d in it, which doubtless was one of those belonging to this plain, and to the temple of Stonehenge, before this camp was made”


Stonehenge and its Barrows by William Long, Esq., M.A., F.S.A. 1876

Miscellaneous

Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead
Hillfort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jan 18, 2008

It seems curious that this large site so close to Stonehenge had not been already added to TMA? I guess it’s fairly incognito.

But the scheduled monument record on Magic says Vespasian’s Camp is the only Iron Age fortification in the Stonehenge area. They call it ‘an outstanding example of its type’ (ie a univallate hillfort) – probably because it’s not been disturbed much. It was even fashionably incorporated into the grounds of the local big house in the 18th century, so it has got a few tracks across it. It’s wooded now. There are older barrows inside its banks, that the later inhabitants must have deliberately preserved (or ignored).

The bank on the west (Stonehenge) side is huge, at 6.5m from the bottom of the ditch. Look on the map and you’ll see how the fort on its hill nestles nicely in the ‘neck’ of a meander of the River Avon. The main road runs immediately to the north (where one of the entrances was) so if you’ve been to Stonehenge you may have seen the fort even if you didn’t realise it was there. I don’t think you can see the stones from the fort though. Might be wrong.

Why it should be attributed to Vespasian particularly is anyone’s guess. The Stonehenge World Heritage Site website says that it was William Camden, in Elizabethan times, “that gave the hillfort its rather romantic name.” Romantic?? Perhaps that’s just a euphemism.

english-heritage.org.uk/stonehengeinteractivemap/sites/vespasians_camp/01.html
(this web site also has some tiny maps / photos).

Sites within 20km of Vespasian’s Camp and Blick Mead

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.